Technology has given us the possibility of a cashless society, allowing us to send value across vast distances by leveraging the internet. However, this convenience is criticized with privacy concerns as the general public is not confident in permitting large institutions to track their daily transactions.
We leave traces of personal information as we surf the internet; recently visited websites, preferences, identity, location, ...etc. Advertisers are keen to have access to these data to target advertising. "Selling" these data is how most social media platforms can keep up with a free service model. This act has raised many controversies concerning how the data is handled, stored, and sold to third parties.
Tech giants like Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Google are beginning to enter the banking industry, promising users with seamless payments. Apple pay and Google pay have been gaining popularity since launch while Facebook has been lagging. It seems that people are more sanguine to have Apple and Google in charge of their money instead of Facebook. Understandably, this is because of the privacy backlash Facebook had suffered in recent years. However, is Apple and Google really going to respect your privacy?
To comprehend the power of allowing an organization to control your money, one should look at China. Most of the daily transactions are done through apps like Wechat and Alipay, created by Chinese tech giants Tencent, and Alibaba respectively. Although these two tech giants appear to be rival companies, it is quite obvious that the communist party has a stake in both cooperations. Digital cash is so embedded into the system that most people are reluctant to accept cash because it is a hassle to carry. Things were easy and incredibly convenient with everything done with a swipe of your finger. And I have to admit, I love the seamless process.
The convenience, however, is not as it seems to be. You don't have to use the apps for a minute to realize the plots behind the scenes. Giving this power to institutions is giving up your freedom and privacy as humans. Whenever you displease the government, for example, speaking against them, they won't even punish you directly. Restricting one's access to these apps is all they have to do to render one helpless. And you can believe me when I say Communist China censors free speech. There were even rumors that the algorithms were able to censor in private conversations , but I have not experienced anything of such extreme yet.
Will the leading conglomerate eventually comply with US governments? Hopefully not. However, you are the product they are selling, and it is a matter of time before more personal data are included.
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